Nuova Distribution recommends Chris' Coffee Service) in the US as your source for the Nuova Simonelli Oscar, where it can be bought for $895 or less. In Canada, a visit to the ECM Showroom will net you the machine for under $1,200 Cdn as of this writing.

This time around, CoffeeGeek takes a first look at the Nuova Simonelli Oscar espresso machine, a serious contender for the prosumer, heat exchanger espresso market.

The Oscar is a two litre boiler machine with a lot of advanced features that sometimes get overlooked because of the most visible aspect of the machine - the outer skin is made of plastic.

I have to admit, I fell into the crowd that did overlook the machine when it first came out, even criticizing it publicly because of the plastic skin. Where other companies poured a lot of money into polished metals, Nuova Simonelli didn't do so with the Oscar and as such, I didn't make serious attempts to learn more about it when it was first introduced to the market.

That's all changed with this first look, and our forthcoming Detailed Review of the Oscar.

(note - due to various circumstances, there will be no detailed review of the Nuova Simonelli Oscar.

The Oscar's lowest official online price is $895US, though the MSRP is $1195.